Acupuncture Helping Inmates Curb Drug Addiction

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 11:52:53 AM EST
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[photo by Baltimore Sun]

An acupuncture program in Baltimore jails has been helping 700 inmates a year curb drug addiction:

Modern science has not found solid evidence that it works. Nonetheless, the inmates claim that with acupuncture, all they crave are the meditative moments it brings. They say it soothes them and helps clear their cluttered minds to find the strength to confront their addiction.

District Judge Jamey Hueston thinks every addict should try it....Acupuncture is the key element of the Addicts Changing Together Substance Abuse Program, administered by the drug court. Beginning for women in 1993 and for men three years later, the program steers nonviolent offenders to a rigorous 45-day, behind-bars regimen in lieu of a longer prison term.

How it works: [More...]

In addition to 25 acupuncture sessions, inmates receive group and individual counseling, GED training and life-skills classes. Recently, the program added a family-mediation option for addicts who long ago burned family bridges but want to mend them.

Participants reside in a separate dorm at the Baltimore City Detention Center, away from the general population, and are encouraged to rely on one another for support.

Why it works:

The theory behind the acupuncture treatment is that it releases naturally occurring chemicals in the body that ease the symptoms of drug withdrawal and help users fight their addiction.

....The treatment causes the body to release feel-good chemicals called endorphins, which go to the same receptors in the brain that are turned on when someone takes drugs, says Dr. Lixing Lao, director of the traditional Chinese-medicine program at the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Medicine.

The same treatment is effective in treating chronic pain. And the cost savings is impressive.

At a cost of $40,000 a year for all 688 inmates, the acupuncture portion of the city jail program is cheap by most treatment standards. But its supporters stress that it must be used with counseling and other services to be effective. Acupuncture won't permanently cure addiction.

"We are not saying it's curing addiction — there is no cure for addiction," says Dave Wurzel, a certified acupuncturist whose firm does the jail's treatments. "Just like there is no cure for heart disease or diabetes. All we are doing in addiction treatment is lowering the risk factor that this person will die today of his or her addiction."

The Baltimore Sun article is here.

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Acupuncture Helping Inmates Curb Drug Addiction | 51 comments (51 topical)

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counseling isn't "science" based either (5.00 / 1) (#12)
by Bemused on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:36:16 PM EST

but sometimes it works. In practical application, why something works or whether we understand why it works, are not the main issues.

Whether it's just a placebo type effect, or whatever, if it works for some people what's the problem?

Short-term, non cumulative? OK, but in that period maybe people will find some inner resource we also don't understand and have no empirical evidence to explain to take a step forward they could not have taken in the absence of this treatment.

When you have a program that works for everyone and for which you can explain the scientific basis, come back with the arguments for stopping everything else.

Great Idea (none / 0) (#1)
by squeaky on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 12:06:20 PM EST

Acupuncture has been tested for over 5000 years and still going strong. It is hilarious that the AMA, or "modern science" is still scratching its head over it.

Show me (none / 0) (#9)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:07:18 PM EST

Show me the study. Show me ONE good, unambiguous study that indicates acupuncture has a real effect, and we will be going somewhere. Anecdotal evidence and the fact that it's old just isn't good evidence. A bunch of low quality evidence doesn't equal a piece of good evidence. No matter how high you stack cow patties, they don't turn into a bar of gold.

The death penalty, war, and other atrocities are also 5k years old. That adds absolutely NO weight to the argument for them.

Also, your opinion that the AMA's refusal is "silly" and you can't see why they do it is not a sound argument. It is an argument from ignorance.


You'd have to... (5.00 / 1) (#39)
by NealB on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 05:06:57 PM EST

...remove the beam from your eye and all that.


Do your own research. (none / 0) (#10)
by Anne on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:27:46 PM EST

And maybe ask yourself why you are so threatened by something that has helped people.


Silly beyond words (none / 0) (#26)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:40:26 PM EST

I'm not threatened. I'm simply asking, with all this great evidence everywhere, surely you can produce some to back up YOUR claims? Maybe you're the threatened one?


Sorry - not playing this game. (5.00 / 1) (#31)
by Anne on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:48:11 PM EST

You're not interested in information, or discussion; you're a classic button-pusher who has already made up his mind.


: I am completely open to changing my mind (none / 0) (#33)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:52:32 PM EST

The minute you show me an unambiguous double-blinded scientific study that shows that acupuncture has an effect greater than placebo, I will change my mind and be willing to accept it as evidence of acupuncture. This should also be forwarded to the AMA. It would be a great breakthrough.
I have not, however, found such a study in my own research.

It has a real effect (none / 0) (#35)
by Jen M on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:56:56 PM EST

with people who believe it will have a real effect.

It is called the placebo effect. The human mind is extremely powerful and in chronic pain cases or other kinds of cases such as addiction it can be a huge benefit.


studies (none / 0) (#45)
by diogenes on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 07:58:01 PM EST

Studies that compare acupuncture to sham acupuncture (putting needles in the "wrong spots") don't come out so well. Even the addiction studies that support it show effects wearing out fast, and only the Lindsay Lohans of the world can afford their own personal daily acupuncturist.


: of course (none / 0) (#46)
by Jen M on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 09:20:15 PM EST

when they sent me to an accupuncturist I was not thrilled. When she wanted to electrify the pins I was out there so fast there was a sonic boom.
Placebo effect depends on belief!

Acupuncture is amazing (none / 0) (#2)
by samtaylor2 on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 12:10:07 PM EST

I had serious doubts, until I tried it. Personally I think anyone who is having sleep problems or emotional issues should try acupuncture before getting pharmaceutical help.

I had some friends go to China on a medical exchange program and go into a couple acupuncture clinics there. They said it was completely different then here. There they had a ton of beds just lined up with people getting there treatments- no aroma therapy, no candles, etc.

It is frustrating that there is a lack of scientific understanding of this health practice. They said that the "science" behind it made absolutely no sense in that organs that it was supposed to effect, we know now, aren't located there or have mechanisms that aren't affected in the ways that were described. That being said, it works. It would just be nice to be able to tell a patient why.

There's plenty of information out there (5.00 / 1) (#5)
by Anne on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 01:45:25 PM EST

about the science of acupuncture, tons of studies, courses being taught, collaborations between traditional Western medicine and alternative medicine, so I find your comment just really off-the-wall.

If you want to be able to inform your patients, it behooves you to be informed yourself.


: Acupuncture is NOT science (none / 0) (#8)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 01:52:55 PM EST

: It would behoove you (none / 0) (#36)
by samtaylor2 on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 04:00:56 PM EST

To know what you are talking about. UNFORTUNATELY, we don't know why much of acupuncture works. If I go to pubmed right now I do not find articles about how it works at all. But thanks, try again later.

I hate to rain on the parade, but. (none / 0) (#3)
by Pieter B on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 12:58:22 PM EST

It is frustrating that there is a lack of scientific understanding of this health practice.

There is a scientific understanding of acupuncture, but you're not going to like it.

its supporters stress that it must be used with counseling and other services to be effective.

A strong case could be made that it's this, rather than the acupuncture, that is the key element of the program. And even that may not work long-term. From the linked article:

The state Division of Correction does not track inmates after they complete the program and does not keep data on whether addicts stay clean. But Mohammad Riaz Ahmad, the program's director, points to studies that suggest acupuncture's effectiveness. A Yale University study found that 55 percent of participants tested free of cocaine during the last week of acupuncture treatment, compared with 24 percent and 9 percent in two groups that did not have acupuncture. But a follow-up study contradicted the earlier findings, and researchers said the topic needed more research.

: I guess that the long-term effects (none / 0) (#4)
by of1000Kings on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 01:44:50 PM EST

depend on the long-term availability for regular acupuncture...
considering that the meditative/feel-good feeling one gets after a session of acupuncture is supposed to take the place of the feel-good feeling of taking cocaine...
my guess, though, is that most of the inmates won't have the ability to continue therapy after imprisonment (mostly because of the cost of the therapy, and availability)...
the feeling one gets from acupuncture isn't really an accumulative effect...doesn't matter how many times you do it you still have to keep doing it to get that feeling that the user is looking for...
add in some meditation and some philosophy, maybe in a group, and you may have something that could change the lives of some users...

Jeralyn (none / 0) (#6)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 01:50:27 PM EST

This is pseudoscience. Let's put this money into actual SCIENTIFIC studies on addiction. If acupuncture would like to enter the scientific world, it has to prove itself in unambiguous, double-blinded studies first - which it has failed to do. Of course, acupuncture proponents wills state that "science doesn't know everything" - of course it doesn't know everything. The fact that it never claims to know more than it has proven is its strength. It is always open to change, always willing to recognize new evidence. The discipline of acupuncture, however, does claim to know everything, and is not open to change, and refuses to accept contradictory evidence. At best they will offer a "special pleading" argument and claim that it can't be tested - a get out of jail free card, an argument that is common amongst "alternative" therapies and other pseudosciences.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture#Issues_in_study_design

An analysis of 13 studies of pain treatment with acupuncture, published in January 2009 in the journal BMJ, concluded there was little difference in the effect of real, sham and no acupuncture. [60][63]

Acupuncture is pseudo-science until you need it! (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:35:27 PM EST

I had two herniated disks from a work related accident that had me bed ridden and did not respond to meds or physical therapy. I hate needles so the last thing I wanted was to look like porcupine.

After a year of constant pain and no options except surgery, I researched acupuncture and found an excellent doctor in my area. He had me walking after the first session. Eight sessions later I was pain free and when the pain reoccurred (not often) one or two sessions was all I needed.

I was a professional dancer at the time and this doctor and his acupuncture skills helped saved my career. He also cured my mom of chronic sinusitis with one session.

Not all doctors are equally gifted. We know this from traditional doctors.

I thank God for what you call a pseudo-science!


As someone with almost constant back pain (none / 0) (#13)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:41:05 PM EST

from a bulging disk, this is very intersting to me.

What exactly did the acupuncture do for you? Block the pain? I assume the disks are still herniated...


It took the pain away (none / 0) (#14)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:53:45 PM EST

I haven't had an MRI to find out what exactly happened but I have been pain free for years. Knock on wood.

From what I understand the body can repair itself. The body, according to chinese philosophy, has energy channels and when one of those channels is blocked pain or disfunction results. Acupuncture unblocks those channels and your body heals itself.

This doctor is in La Cresenta California. He practiced in China for 20 years then taught at a university in the states.

I have recommended him to a lot of people and all of them have had positive results. I don't work for him, never worked for him, nor receive any compensation in any way shape or form from him. He just really helped me and I'm very grateful.


La Cresenta is w/in 20 miles of my office. (none / 0) (#16)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:03:09 PM EST

If you can tell me who he is I'd love to try him out.


His name is Dr. Willie Mao (none / 0) (#17)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:07:58 PM EST

He is amazing. Let me know how it worked out.


Glendale. Even closer. Thanks! (none / 0) (#18)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:10:37 PM EST

: Excellent. (none / 0) (#21)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:20:47 PM EST

I'm glad to see he's still practicing.
He uses electrical devices on the needles and I always made sure they were at the highest level I could tolerate. I also visualized my body being healed while receiving the treatment.
I hope you benefit greatly from it.

Reply to mexboy (none / 0) (#30)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:47:58 PM EST

"From what I understand the body can repair itself."

Of course the body can repair itself. This is what happens when you get a cut and it heals itself. It can't do everything though. That's what medicine is for. An antibiotic kills the infection when the white blood cells are overwhelmed. A bandage stops the open wound from touching contaminated surfaces.

"The body, according to chinese philosophy, has energy channels and when one of those channels is blocked pain or disfunction results."

Do you understand what energy is? It is the capacity to do work. It can do nothing on its own. It's not a shiny cloud of mystical stuff that does magic. Your body does have energy channels - it's called your cardiac system. It has nothing to do with healing the body, although the immune system does require energy to work.

"Acupuncture unblocks those channels and your body heals itself."

Again, I ask you to present YOUR evidence for YOUR claims. This is nonsense.

"This doctor is in La Cresenta California. He practiced in China for 20 years then taught at a university in the states."

He is not a medical doctor if he has a degree in acupuncture. It's like a degree in basket weaving.

"I have recommended him to a lot of people and all of them have had positive results."

Sugar pill also gives positive results when people are told it will help. Acupuncture has presented nothing to say that it is any different.


You are nasty beyond belief! (none / 0) (#40)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 05:12:12 PM EST

Do not address me with that condescending and belittling tone. Your post is obnoxious and disrespectful.

I too can cut and paste your diatribes and ridicule you, but an intelligent and self aware person understands why they are lashing out the way you are, and takes responsibility for his/her issues. I suggest you do the same.

Do you understand what energy is? It is the capacity to do work. It can do nothing on its own. It's not a shiny cloud of mystical stuff that does magic. Your body does have energy channels - it's called your cardiac system.

You are ignorant on the subject and obviously very threatened by it. I was talking about the invisible pathways of QI aka meridians, not the cardiac system.

Energy does have an intelligence, you are not the god of it. It exited before you and will exist long after you're gone.
educate yourself

spiritual energy

I am not even going to bother with the rest of your offensive diatribe because it is designed to push buttons as someone else already stated above.

My post was purposely simple and unencumbered by esoteric language, it is anectoctal and about my own personal experience. You need to get a grip.


: Logical deconstruction (none / 0) (#50)
by MrConservative on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 12:25:55 AM EST

Take it as ridicule if you will.
Energy is the capacity to do work. In the future, looking at acupuncture sites, replace "energy" with "capacity to do work", and you will see how ridiculous they truly are. It is just high-sounding language that is ultimately meaningless jumble constructed mainly to give the discipline a false air of legitimacy.

my mother has a similar issue... (none / 0) (#15)
by of1000Kings on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 02:56:51 PM EST

a couple of herniated and slipped disks...a couple of fractures...

doctors want to give her morphine patches and whatever other pain pills they can think of...
it works, but to the detriment of her immune system and she's had a lot of issues with that...

she tried acupuncture at the request of one doctor and found that although the benefits were short term that the acupuncture relieved much of her pain (then again, pain pills have short-term benefits, too, that go away when you stop taking them)...

then again, maybe all these people with pain and other issues just wanted acupuncture to work so much (even though they didn't want to do it) that it did work...ya....

also, just because it works for a select people also doesn't mean it will work on the whole...just like any prescription drug ever made...


I'm only speaking for myself (none / 0) (#19)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:11:27 PM EST

and from my own experience. But I'll tell you this, I'll try acupuncture before drugs any day.
I haven't had to have another treatment in about ten years.


: My mother is a neurosurgeon (none / 0) (#37)
by samtaylor2 on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 04:03:33 PM EST

And often recommends acupuncture to her patients.

It Also Reduces Inflamation (none / 0) (#22)
by squeaky on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:21:29 PM EST

And promotes circulation. I have benefited from acupuncture many times in my life. My funniest story is about a friend who is a pro piano tuner. He went to a top acupuncturist to solve a shoulder problem that was probably work related.

After five or ten sessions the shoulder problem was not solved, but for the first time in his life his sinuses were cleared. He suffered from terrible allergies and had his head blocked up for 50 years. Now he says his head feels like the grand canyon, or an illustrious opera house. He goes back once a year for treatments, now usually in August and has had no sinus blockage/allergies since.

Oh, and the shoulder problem went away on its own.


: Huh. I also have pretty bad (none / 0) (#23)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:25:28 PM EST

osteoarthritis in one shoulder (aging jock).
This could be very interesting...

Let me answer (none / 0) (#28)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:42:31 PM EST

An exaggerated tale of the placebo effect, or completely made up.


Maybe so, but it's cheap enough that I'll try it. (none / 0) (#29)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:45:18 PM EST

Tootsie rolls (none / 0) (#32)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:50:07 PM EST

Are also cheap. I do not use them as medicine because they are not medicine.


Obviously, you are not aware of the (5.00 / 2) (#34)
by Anne on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:54:50 PM EST

benefits of chocolate. Sad.

Maybe you should eat some Tootsie Rolls anyway, just to raise your blood sugar and put you in a better mood.

Oh, wait...blood sugar is kind of a technical, medical term. Better not go there, huh?

Say, aren't there some neighborhood kids you can chase off your lawn, or something?


Why don't you butt out (none / 0) (#41)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 05:15:45 PM EST

And let others discover what works for them?

What is your beef in this?

No one is pushing you to visit an acupuncturist, how is this personally affecting you that you want to control what others do with their money and bodies?


I oppose all pseudoscience (none / 0) (#47)
by MrConservative on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 12:15:30 AM EST

How am I controlling what you do with your money and body? I am attempting to get you to understand that you are being taken in by scam artists. You are free to visit them however much you like, however.


: Thanks for reminding me (none / 0) (#51)
by mexboy on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 12:56:33 AM EST

why I can't stand conservatives. They are narrow-minded people who try to impose their tiny view of the world on the rest of us.

I am attempting to get you to understand that you are being taken in by scam artists.
My back is has been pain free for over ten years and I can dance again. And who the h*ll asked you to butt into my business, anyway?
Go stop the neighbors from having sex or something.

Anecdotal evidence (none / 0) (#27)
by MrConservative on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:41:39 PM EST

You are an anonymous poster on the internet. Do you honestly want me to accept your claims at face value? This is not good evidence. It proves nothing.


My conversation was with sarcastic, not you. (none / 0) (#42)
by mexboy on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 05:18:27 PM EST

I could care less what you accept. Sarcastic is suffering from a condition I suffered with and I shared with him what worked for me. How is that any of your business?


I pretty much said that my post (none / 0) (#43)
by of1000Kings on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 06:26:46 PM EST

was just anecdotal evidence when I said that it works for some, and not for others...

fortunately for me, that fact alone doesn't totally blind me from having a conversation or debate on a topic...


you do accept that there are (5.00 / 1) (#44)
by of1000Kings on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 06:30:30 PM EST

benefits to meditation do you not? I mean, maybe you don't...maybe a monk can survive temperatures that would kill any other human being in a matter of hours and not days because of a placebo effect of meditation, and not any real effect...

for me (again, a qualifier), meditation and acupuncture are both Eastern 'medicines'...and just maybe there is something inherent in the Eastern philosophy that goes beyond what science does at this point...

we also don't know what dark matter or dark energy are, and thus have absolutely no idea of how they work, but there aren't many involved in the subject that would deny the existence of something there...not just some type of placebo...

I'm reaching, I'm sure...but just saying, our knowledge now is not the end of where it will be...


: Meditation (none / 0) (#48)
by MrConservative on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 12:17:14 AM EST

It's all fine. But it shouldn't take the place of medicinal treatment. Alternative medicine is, I believe, wasteful, but it becomes dangerous if people refuse normal treatment to pursue the "alternative" path.

citing wikipedia to (none / 0) (#38)
by kenosharick on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 04:37:20 PM EST

strengthen your argument is counter-productive. Anyone can post anything there- it is a somewhat useless site. For example, some friends once posted a paragraph in an entry about Gettysburg about how the use of "panzer tanks" helped "win" the battle. Their joke stayed up for over a week.


: Really? (none / 0) (#49)
by MrConservative on Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 12:21:49 AM EST

Factual claims in wikipedia are either cited or have a "citation needed" mark. The study I linked to has a cite which you can look at. Wikipedia has been directly compared to Encyclopedia Brittanica, and they have roughly the same number of factual errors. It's just that wikipedias factual errors are pretty obvious and silly, like panzer tanks, are clearly uncited, and are taken down almost immediately anyway. The fact that anyone can edit it is a flaw and a benefit.

Getting stuck with hundreds of needles (none / 0) (#7)
by Dadler on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 01:52:34 PM EST

Is a powerful feeling. A powerful feeling can make one do or not do many things. The key is maintaining that feeling, and all that does that is the mind of the patient, the addict, whomever. Psychosomatic medicine, which has largely been forgotten and relegated to the basement since big pharma took over (much the same way that one nurse at Johns Hopkins kept that special diet that treats epilepsy amazingly well in many children -- Ketogenic? sic? -- going for decades while pills took over medicine. Without her, that diet and its effectiveness would have died.

Ketogenic diets work (none / 0) (#20)
by Fabian on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:12:29 PM EST

because they change the metabolism.

For some humor, a ketogenic diet is actually just a low carb diet - administered strictly. Instead of burning carbohydrates as the body's main fuel, ketogenic diets burn fats and proteins instead. It's a way of deliberately inducing ketosis.

It works to control some seizure disorders. Considering what the potential side effects of even mild anti seizure drugs are, maintaining a strict diet may be worth it.


: I remember that (none / 0) (#24)
by Dadler on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:25:38 PM EST

About how the kids were fed bacon and eggs and drank vegetable oil. And it is amazing that the diet stayed alive because one nurse in the basement, basically, kept it alive. Then a Hollywood producer's kid responded to it (one of the Airplane comedy guys, as I recall, Zucker maybe), and it became "popular" again.
Fortunately for the Chinese, acupuncture was too ingrained in the culture. Here, we're still far to young for much of anything to be ingrained except guns and profit.

Great! I learned Reiki for myself (none / 0) (#25)
by lilybart on Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 03:30:17 PM EST

so I could get to that intense state of balance and be stress free. It took a few hours over a weekend and now I can do this for myself, FREE.

Reiki may be similar to the relaxation effects of Acupuncture and over the long-term, FREE Reiki would be better than the on-going expense of acupunture for those who cannot afford it.